![\"JJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2195611383-e1755375940884.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty \t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Head coach JJ Redick of the Los Angeles Lakers speaks with his players during a timeout. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> will\u00a0only have one major change in their starting lineup for the upcoming season, Lakers Daily\u2019s Ashish Mathur reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cA league source told Lakers Daily that Redick is expected to start [Luka] Doncic<\/a>, [Austin] Reaves<\/a>, [Rui] Hachimura<\/a>, [LeBron] James<\/a> and [Deandre] Ayton<\/a> next season and have [Marcus] Smart<\/a>, [Jake] LaRavia, [Jaxson] Hayes<\/a>, Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent run the second unit,\u201d Mathur recently reported.<\/p>\n Ayton is the Lakers\u2019 solution to their most pressing issue that led to their first-round exit last season. The former No. 1 pick averaged 14.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks while shooting 56.6% last season in Portland. He gives the Lakers a double-double threat in the center position, weakened by Anthony Davis\u2019 departure in the Luka Doncic trade last season.<\/p>\n The 7-foot center signed a two-year, $16.2 million deal with the Lakers after reaching a buyout with the Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n Ayton was part of the Lakers\u2019 offseason splash that only cost them $19 million and a change. Aside from the 27-year-old big man, the Lakers also added Smart, a former Defensive Player of the Year, and LaRavia on two-year bargain deals.<\/p>\n But despite Ayton\u2019s addition, the Lakers still have the center position as their biggest concern entering next season.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing the Lakers do is under the radar, so this potential pitfall might seem more\u00a0obvious\u00a0than the other contenders\u2019 concerns,\u201d\u00a0Dave McMenamin wrote on ESPN<\/a>\u00a0about the Lakers\u2019\u00a0biggest\u00a0concerns. \u201cBut until proved otherwise, L.A. is soft in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n Behind Ayton, the Lakers only have Hayes\u00a0and\u00a0Maxi Kleber<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers could only be just one Ayton injury away from reverting to small ball, which did not succeed in the playoffs.<\/p>\n Anonymous NBA Exec Bullish About Lakers<\/p>\n While their center depth could pose a concern, an anonymous league executive views the Lakers as one of the favorites in the loaded Western Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were the third seed last year and did that without a starting-level center,\u201d\u00a0the anonymous NBA exec told Lakers Daily. \u201cThey definitely got better by adding Ayton and Smart. I can see them making the conference finals. You can never count out LeBron. I don\u2019t care how old he is. He\u2019s still amazing offensively. And everyone keeps talking about how great Luka\u00a0looks after his weight loss. He\u2019s probably hungry to win it all next season.\u201d<\/p>\n After opening the offseason with a veiled threat to leave the Lakers, James will start<\/a> his 23rd season in Hollywood on an expiring contract. With something to prove, expect James to be more motivated this upcoming season alongside a better-conditioned Doncic and a beefed-up supporting cast.<\/p>\n Luka Avoids Serious Injury<\/p>\n The Lakers dodged a bullet following Doncic\u2019s scary fall during Slovenia\u2019s 100-88 exhibition loss to Latvia on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n According to NBA insider Marc Stein<\/a>, Doncic has been diagnosed with a right knee contusion, citing sources briefed on the situation. The injury he sustained \u201cis not believed to be serious.\u201d<\/p>\n Doncic\u2019s Slovenian teammate, Gregor Hrovat, fell on his right knee during the third quarter. He returned to the bench after briefly exiting into Slovenia\u2019s locker room to determine the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n According to Dan Woike of The Athletic<\/a>, Doncic will continue to compete with Slovenia in EuroBasket this summer.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAlder Almo<\/a> is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy.com. He has more than 20 years of experience in local and international media, including broadcast, print and digital. He previously covered the Knicks for Empire Sports Media and the NBA for Off the Glass. Alder is from the Philippines and is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey. More about Alder Almo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Head coach JJ Redick of the Los Angeles Lakers speaks with his players during a timeout. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-73862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}